1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to graft copolymers and, in particular, to graft copolymers in which an acrylate is grafted onto a dissimilar backbone polymer.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The preparation of a wide variety of graft copolymers has been described in the art. For example graft copolymers can be prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,932 by oxidizing a methacrylic homopolymer, such as isopropyl methacrylate, with air to form a hydroperoxide derivative and then reacting the said derivative with a high molecular weight methacrylate ester thus forming a graft copolymer.
One object of this invention is to provide a graft copolymers by copolymerizing an unsaturated hydrocarbon polymer previously treated with dinitrogen tetroxide or a mixture of dinitrogen tetroxide and oxygen to form reactive sites therein, with an acrylate monomer.
Another object of this invention is to graft an acrylate monomer to a dissimilar backbone polymer while avoiding crosslinking.